Linux Kernel mac80211 Skb Freeing Bug Fix (CVE-2026-23444)
CVE-2026-23444 Published on April 3, 2026
wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
wifi: mac80211: always free skb on ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() failure
ieee80211_tx_prepare_skb() has three error paths, but only two of them
free the skb. The first error path (ieee80211_tx_prepare() returning
TX_DROP) does not free it, while invoke_tx_handlers() failure and the
fragmentation check both do.
Add kfree_skb() to the first error path so all three are consistent,
and remove the now-redundant frees in callers (ath9k, mt76,
mac80211_hwsim) to avoid double-free.
Document the skb ownership guarantee in the function's kdoc.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-23444
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Affected Versions
Linux:- Version 06be6b149f7e406bcf16098567f5a6c9f042bced and below 06e769dddcbeb3baf2ce346273b53dd61fdbecf4 is affected.
- Version 06be6b149f7e406bcf16098567f5a6c9f042bced and below 50f1b690b4868923fbd242298def2fb88662f108 is affected.
- Version 06be6b149f7e406bcf16098567f5a6c9f042bced and below d5ad6ab61cbd89afdb60881f6274f74328af3ee9 is affected.
- Version 3.13 is affected.
- Before 3.13 is unaffected.
- Version 6.18.20, <= 6.18.* is unaffected.
- Version 6.19.10, <= 6.19.* is unaffected.
- Version 7.0-rc5, <= * is unaffected.